Boom Supersonic (Boom) has welcomed a new investor to its portfolio, with the inclusion of China’s travel conglomerate, Ctrip. According to a statement from both organisations, the partnership will bring supersonic flight to China. Leveraging its extensive knowledge of the Chinese market, Ctrip will help Boom accelerate its ongoing partnership efforts with airlines in China. Ctrip is uniquely positioned to help Boom navigate the Chinese airline industry.

Additionally, Boom will help Ctrip explore offering its customers 10–15 seats on one of Boom’s first several supersonic commercial flights. Together, the two companies are working to make the world more accessible by halving flight times from China to the United States, South Asia, and Oceania.

The partnership is a good move for Boom as Chinese aviation continues to grow. Recent aviation market forecasts from IATA even predict that China will displace the United States as the world’s largest aviation market by 2022.

Boom, the US start-up, is planning a new generation carbon composite supersonic aircraft with 45 all-business seats in two single seat rows, and priced at approximately 10% above current business fares. It will fly at over 2,500 km an hour, or Mach 2.2, and be able to link major hubs in much shorter times than current services.

“Ctrip offers valuable expertise in the Chinese travel market, and we’re excited to work with their passionate, entrepreneurial team to bring supersonic travel to the region”, said Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl. “San Francisco to Shanghai, for example, could shrink from 11 hours to 6—and a typical round-trip itinerary can be accomplished two whole days faster. But the benefits of faster travel extend far beyond the time savings. What really matters are the new trips you choose to take—the ones you otherwise wouldn’t have considered because the journey was simply too long. When we fly twice as fast, the world becomes twice as small, turning far-off lands into familiar neighbours.”

“As a leading innovator in the commercial aviation industry, Boom will be positioned to provide exciting premium global flight options for Ctrip users and Ctrip is making a strategic investment in the next generation of travel. In addition, Ctrip’s unrivalled expertise in the business travel market will help Boom to further deepen its relationships with Chinese airlines”, said Ctrip co-founder and executive chairman James Liang.

Boom’s variety of investors have faith in the technology

This partnership is not the first of its kind for Boom. The Virgin Group was one of the original investors; in 2016 the founder Richard Branson announced that Virgin Galactic’s manufacturing team, The Spaceship Company, had formed a partnership with Boom to develop supersonic travel.

In Dec-2017 Japan Airlines (JAL) then made a strategic investment of USD10 million in Boom and is collaborating with the company to refine the aircraft design and help define the passenger experience. JAL also has the option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft through a pre-order arrangement. According to Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl the company is holding discussions with another 20 airlines regarding its supersonic airliner concept.

Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker said: “Qatar Airways would be very interested [in Boom’s technology] to look at it and we wouldn’t hesitate to be the launch customer. The only reason we are not committing to this is that they have still not identified who will be the engine manufacturer for this airplane. Once there is a proper commitment from an engine manufacturer to this programme, Qatar Airways would be very interested in a small number of these airplanes”.